


You need to be two for this

by Idlewild



Series: With You as My Wingman [4]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Blindness, Canon Disabled Character, Fights, Gen, IKEA Furniture, Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson at Columbia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 18:43:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10471542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idlewild/pseuds/Idlewild
Summary: Matt and Foggy move into their second apartment together (Columbia era) and try to build some IKEA furniture for the first time. It goes about as well as can be expected, which is to say not very.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this prompt](http://skellgate.tumblr.com/post/108361339208) on Tumblr. Posted it on my blog but I thought it deserved a more permanent residence.

It’s a chest of drawers. Except that it’s not, because it’s a flat cardboard box that weighs way more than it should. Matt and Foggy have carried far too many boxes and bed frames and shelves up the three flights of stairs to their new apartment in the last couple of days already, but all of that was pre-assembled by the various Nelson relatives that they mooched it off of for their last flat. This is the first new piece of furniture they’ve actually bought together and it would be exciting and fun if they weren’t both so utterly sick of moving by now.

Foggy rips the box apart in the chaos of the living room and finds the manual. ‘It says here you need to be two for this,’ he says with forced cheer. ‘Well, it doesn’t strictly _say_ it, it’s actually a drawing of a guy looking sad, holding a hammer and with a cross over him, and then two people looking happy together. The one without the hammer has a pencil behind his ear. I just thought you should know that.’

‘Do you wanna be pencil guy?’ Matt asks, trying to be cheery too but actually too exhausted to quite make it. Foggy has already moved on, though, rambling about needing a carpet and how the cardboard box will have to do because they don’t have fancy shit like that and oh dear fuck there are so many pieces.

Matt sighs. They’ve not even started yet and he’s already sick of this exercise. ‘Can I see that?’ he demands, holding out a hand. Foggy hands him the manual and Matt tries to figure out what’s what of the lines of ink, but none of it makes any sense. He’s never assembled any furniture. He’s pretty sure there’s perspective involved. It doesn’t feel anything like drawers.

Meanwhile, Foggy has located a bag of what sounds like a bajillion screws and plastic thingamabobs, and laid out two flat bits of wood on the cardboard.

‘Can you read that?’ Foggy wonders. Matt shakes his head and hands it back. ‘Well, lucky for you I built a lot of Legos growing up, so this’ll be a cakewalk. I hope.’ Matt really doubts this.

‘Lego actually makes Braille descriptions of their stuff, though. When will IKEA start doing that? I thought Sweden was all progressive with disability rights.’

‘We’ll ask them when we’ve built this thing.’ Foggy hands over half of a bunch of long weird screws and tells Matt to put them in the rightmost of each pair of holes along the sides. This is fine. He can do this. They each finish their half at the same time and Foggy approves Matt’s screwing. They giggles-snort at that and fist-bump and then it’s on to the next step. And it’s all downhill from there.

~~~~~*~~~~~

‘If you can just – hold that there – _no!_ Okay, I’ll hold this, let’s change places.’ They drop the side of the thing that they were trying to balance on the slats now sticking up like bars from the other side. It clatters to the floor and Foggy curses loudly. Matt wants to punch a wall. Foggy sighs but says, ‘Sorry, we’ll try again. Nothing’s broken, it’s fine.’

It’s fine, because Matt can hold the thing up on his own while Foggy walks around and fits all the little nubbins into their holes. It’s fine when they stand the now structurally sound contraption right-side-up, until it lands on Foggy’s toe and he screams and actually does punch a wall. Matt apologises this time, even though Foggy insists that as the one with eyesight he was totally to blame.

It’s all fine. More plugs, another piece of wood, little plastic things that Matt puts in and Foggy screws in place. They lay the thing flat on its front and then there’s not enough space to slide the back piece in. They have to move everything around the room to fit, but they get it in there.

‘Okay, you hold that in place and I’ll hammer.’ Foggy is terrible with a hammer, Matt knows this already from when they tried to build a birdhouse in their first year, but he keeps his mouth shut about that. There are about a million nails and it takes forever.

~~~~~*~~~~~

They should have taken a break before building the drawers, probably. Foggy does one and Matt feels for what he’s doing until Foggy snaps that he ‘can’t do this with two sets of hands, just wait your turn!’ Matt sets about gathering the same supplies for the next drawer, setting them on the floor with more than necessary clattering because he’s pissed off by now. Foggy has been whining about the annoying manual and various screws for an hour, but at least he can see the stupid things. At least if he tried to explain things, Matt could help out instead of just being a fifth wheel holding things in place.

This is the worst idea ever. But Matt is not going to give up, because he’s not useless and Foggy clearly needs the moral support and upper body strength that Matt can provide, so he starts assembling the second drawer the way the first one felt. Foggy cheers him on with less and less enthusiasm and more and more exasperation until –

‘You know what, it’ll be faster if I do both of these than me doing one and telling you how to do the other _at the same time_.’ His voice is a lot louder than it needs to be, and considering the lacking thickness of the walls in this building, Matt is sure the neighbours are getting scared. ‘Just take the frame into your room, I’ll fix the drawers.’

‘Fine!’ Matt exclaims, even louder than Foggy. ‘I’ll just stick to my skill level of _carrying things!_ You suck at this too you know!’ And he picks up the frame to stomp off, but Foggy deflates on the floor.

‘Sorry, man, I just can’t explain this when I barely understand it myself. And for the record, I know your skill level is astronomical considering –‘ He cuts the sentence short.

‘ _What??!_ ’ Matt barks. He’s surprised himself at how angry he suddenly is, because he usually knows that Foggy thinks the world of him and his skills. Maybe that’s the problem, that suddenly Foggy is on the same level as the rest of society where no one thinks that Matt can do anything on his own, and now all the pent-up frustration at them is being taken out on Foggy. ‘Considering what? No, don’t tell me. This was a shit idea from the start anyway!’

‘Matt!’ Foggy calls after him as he leaves the room. There’s the noise of him trying to extricate himself from behind all the loose pieces of wood and metal, followed by tripping, crashing, yelping. Matt hastily sets the frame down and is just about to ask when Foggy says, through gritted teeth, ‘I’m fine. Nothing broke. It’s fine.’ But he’s bleeding, quite a bit from the smell of it.

All the adrenaline of anger turns to worry instead and Matt forgets about acting normally blind as he navigates the havoc of half-built furniture and crouches in front of his friend. Foggy doesn’t even notice because he’s clutching his shin and biting his lip and there are definitely tears in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Fog,’ Matt begins, one hand reaching slowly for Foggy’s arm.

And there’s a loud knock on the door. They both jump. ‘I’ll get it,’ Matt says. Foggy nods mutely.

‘Who is it?’ Matt asks the door.

‘NYPD. We’ve had reports of a disturbance at this address.’

‘Brett?’

‘Just open the door, sir.’ Matt does. ‘Matt? What’s going on?’ It is indeed Brett Mahoney, accompanied by a petite lady in a uniform like his, and there’s confusion blended in now along with his professional authority.

‘We’re building a chest of drawers. It’s not going super well. Thanks for stopping by, but we’re okay. No disturbance.’

‘Brett?’ Foggy has limped up behind Matt. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Nothing, apparently.’ Brett sounds vaguely amused now. ‘The neighbours called about a disturbance…’

‘You any good at building drawers?’ Foggy interrupts, sounding both teasing and a little bit hopeful.

‘I’m on duty, Nelson.’

‘Right. Yes. We’re fine. We’ll get chocolate for the neighbours when we’re done with this. Thanks for checking up on us, though.’

Brett and his young colleague troop away and Matt closes the door, then leans back on it. ‘You okay?’

Foggy shrugs. ‘Oh, yeah. It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll put a band-aid on it.’ His breathing changes a fraction of a second before he bursts out giggling, and Matt can’t help but join him. They both slide down the door and sit there shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing way harder than the situation probably deserves. Foggy is still bleeding, and Matt is still low-key annoyed, but it’s all fine.

They leave the scattered bits of drawers on the floor and amble off into the evening to get pizza. Maybe they’ll do better tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Side note: Yes, [Lego actually do make Braille manuals](http://pbsdigitalstudios.tumblr.com/post/151987411590/). It’s pretty awesome.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
